How to Play Lightning Baccarat

Lightning Baccarat is a Baccarat live dealer game by Evolution Gaming and is very similar to other ‘‘lightning games’’ such as Lightning Blackjack, Lightning Roulette, and XXXtreme Lightning Roulette.

In this guide, you will learn everything about Lightning Baccarat. We will cover how the game works, how it differs from standard Baccarat, where and how to play it, and what the best Lightning Baccarat strategy is.

What is Lightning Baccarat?

Lightning Baccarat is similar to classic Baccarat.

You bet on the bank, the player, or a tie. The player or the bank wins by getting as close to nine as possible with the sum of two or more cards. If either the bank or player goes over a hand value of nine, ten points are subtracted from the score.

In Baccarat, the Ace has a value of 1, and the cards 10, Jack, Queen, and King have a value of 0. The other cards (2 to 9) have their face value:

Differences Between Regular and Lightning Baccarat

Where Lightning Baccarat actually differs from the original game is by adding Lightning Cards and multipliers. You have 12 seconds to place your bets at the start of each round.

After betting, all cards and their corresponding multipliers will appear in the bottom left corner of the screen. The number of Lightning Cards varies between one and five each game round, and these can have five types of multipliers: x2, x3, x4, x5, and x8.

When one of the Lightning Cards matches your correct bet, the corresponding multiplier instantly applies to your win. This is a big difference from Lightning Blackjack, where you have to win twice in a row to benefit from the added multiplier.

It is possible to land multiple Lightning Cards in a single round. In addition, it is also possible to win several times with just a single Lightning Card. Lightning Baccarat works with multiple decks, as the live dealer draws cards from eight shuffled decks.

Lightning Baccarat Side bets.

There are two side bets you can place in Lightning Baccarat. These are the Player Pair and the Bank Pair. These side bets assume that the first two cards dealt to either the player or the bank form a pair. The drawn cards' type (hearts, diamonds, spades, or clubs) doesn’t matter.

Lightning Baccarat Payouts.

The payouts of Lightning Baccarat are not much different from standard Baccarat. The odds of 1:1 still apply to both player and bank bets. Meaning you double your bet when you win.

The difference in payouts are mainly in the Tie and the side bets. Where the Tie yields typically 9 or 10 times your bet, with Lightning Roulette, it is 'only' 6 times. However, if you place a correct side bet, you can win up to 10 times your stake.

High Multipliers

Because you can unlock multiple multipliers per round, it is possible that you win very high multipliers of your bet. When you bet on the bank or the player during Lightning Baccarat, you can win up to 512 times your stake. This happens when three cards match the Lightning Cards and have an x8 multiplier.

Lightning Baccarat payouts can be even crazier when you bet on a tie. If there are six cards on the table, which all match the Lightning Cards and all have x8 multiplier, you can win 262,144x your stake.

Lightning Baccarat Strategy

It is difficult to speak of a real Lightning Baccarat strategy because you have little influence on the course of the game as a player.

Lightning Baccarat Return to Player (RTP)

When you play Lightning Baccarat at a live casino, the Return to Player percentage is slightly lower than regular Baccarat and clocks in at an average of 98,76%.